A Moment of Reflection
by bradw316
Summary: Naruto reflects on the war several years after the fact, is later joined by Sakura. Naru/Saku fluff yep you guess it another oneshot.


A Moment of Reflection

Naruto sat quietly it was rare moment after the war had been done, his responsibilities seem to increase now that he was taking over Jiraiya's duties as spymaster. That is until Tsunade turned over the Hokage hat to him. In a sense three Senju and two Uzumaki have been Hokage once he becomes hokage; a full house while not a great hand in poker it won more than its fair share of pots. Chuckling at the analogy of poker entering into the idea of the Hokage seat pretty much staying within a family demographic, outside of the 3rd Hokage everyone was related to another hokage, the first and second were related to each other, and they were both related to the 5th, while the 4th and the 5th will be related to the 6th. He shook his trying hard not to be giddy at these thoughts. Finding out that he had family still left in the world made him happier than he could possibly ever imagine. True his relationship with his cousin right now was strained after all, she was trying to help Sasuke kill him knowing full well she be killing a member of her family. While true they never met before Karin had been traveling with Sasuke but the idea of killing ones family for something they never did was strange to him. Sasuke killing Itachi turned out to be far less justified than originally; Itachi had been under orders to massacre his clan. Orders that were given to him by three greedy power mad old people in what they considered preserving the good of the village.

Naruto scoffed at that last ideal, _for the good of their own lives and well-being would be closer to the mark, old geezers._ The whisker marked blonde sighed heavily, thinking about the fall out that occurred all because three old people who belong in a retirement home dictated and help organized the deaths of over fifty people in the span of a night. But that wasn't the worse crime the whole event could have been avoided by checking to see who was orchestrating the Uchiha into rebellion, _Don't know who that Madara fake was but he caused not only the Uchiha Massacre but the deaths of so many people by ripping Kurama out of mom_. The last thought Naruto felt his chest tighten, Tobi or whoever he was had started the downward spiral of the Uchiha clan on the day of Naruto's birth by killing Naruto's parents. Sure the man never did anything directly but by ripping the nine-tailed fox out of Kushina Uzumaki causing him to go on rampage through the city, it laid seeds of doubt and mistrust in the hearts of the shinobi clans that night. While Naruto was hated and feared for being the new Jinchuuriki, the Uchiha clan had been feared and distrusted believing one of their clan had somehow caused the whole incident trying to instigate a civil war. While many in the civilian population respected the Uchiha clan and pampered Sasuke after massacre, many of the shinobi clans were wary and releaved when the clan had been all but wiped out.

The whisker marked blonde often wondered if it was this underlying fear that prevented his godmother Mitoko Uchiha from ever adopting him, when it clearly stated later in both his parents wills that if Jiraiya was unable to care for him that he be given to his godmother. _Apparently my parents had more faith in the Uchiha clan then village did, they must have figured Mitoko would use her sharingan to keep Kurama in check if he ever tried to get out_. His musings and speculations continue is silence he barely sensed a certain rosette haired girl sneak up behind him kneel down and slide her arms around his waist.

"Hmm, Naruto what are you doing up here?" his favorite pink haired girl asked, kissing his neck lightly.

"Thinking, Sakura-chan," he smiled faintly turning his head to capture her lips in a deep kiss, during the kiss she moved around to sit in his lap.

"Well, I hope your not hurting yourself," she giggled laying her head on his shoulder.

"Sakura-chan!" he whined lightly his smile widening. He slid his arms around her kissing and nibbling her neck. "So finished with everything in the hospital?"

She nods running her fingers through his hair, "Remember light duty until she comes out to greet the world," Sakura stated gently patting her stomach looked swollen.

"Yeah," he leans down a kisses her stomach causing his beloved wife to giggle.

"What were you thinking about?" Sakura asked.

"A lot of weird thoughts but mostly about the three biggest crimes we ever had," Naruto stated watching his wife look at his in confusion. "Kurama's rampage, the whole crap with Tobi/Madara/Obito whoever that nut was, and the Uchiha massacre and how if one thing had been changed I might have lived a very different life."

The rosette haired young woman nodded wincing slightly. "To think if Tobi had never shown up on the day of your birth you might have been raised by your parents, maybe the Uchiha massacre would have never occurred," her eyes watered slightly, "but we may not have been together, Naruto."

"Or," Naruto smiled softly kissing her then wiping her tears away, "We might have met sooner, you could have even been one of my fangirls," he chuckles.

Rolling her eyes then bopping him on the head, Naruto also felt a light kick to his stomach from his unborn daughter. "See even little Kushina-chan thinks your being an idiot."

Pouting slightly looking down at Sakura's stomach, "Being mean to your own father before your even born Kushina-chan that's harsh." Naruto looks at his wife and had to smile act her trying to keep in her laughter. He found himself thinking back to her first confession, he remembered seeing some love behind her eyes but also a lot of mixed feelings. He knew she hadn't gotten completely over Sasuke then, it had taken her nearly getting killed by the Uchiha twice in rapid succession to lose some of that feeling. It had taken three more years after that and a lot of patience on his part before she could finally admit to him she loved him with every fiber of her being. It made him wonder when that epiphany had occurred. Not to say he was ungrateful for it, in fact they had been sharing nearly seven years of bliss together four of those years in marriage.

"Your thinking again," Sakura smiled. "Is this what I'll be seeing every night when you become Hokage in a few days?"

Chuckling Naruto kissed her, "Maybe just have a lot of things to think over you know. Its like I'm reflecting on every little detail of my life," he looked on in mock horror, "maybe I'm dying and my life is passing before my eyes."

His rosette haired wife slapped him hard across the face, reeling from the slap he looked at her in shock and confusion. "Don't you even joke about that," she cried. "You know how many times during the war you came close to dying and how many times I died inside each time," she sobbed into his shoulder. "When I realized that you could have been killed fighting Sasuke, Tobi, and Kabuto…I…I," she couldn't speak anymore she simply buried her face into his shoulder hugging as tightly as she could.

Naruto tighten his own hug burying his own face into her shoulder smelling the cherry blossoms and mint her unique shampoo gave off, it always had a calming effect on him. "I'm sorry Sakura-chan," he whispered into her ear. It took her a few minutes to come back to herself enough, "is that when?"

She hiccup a few times pulling partially away from him, she nodded her head once. "Everytime you went out to fight while I sat in that medical field tent, I felt like I was losing my mind. Every time they brought in someone, kept praying they didn't have blonde hair," she gulped in some air. "But it wasn't until some poor guy no older than us that was brought in," she paused. "He had a girlfriend among the nursing staff, Ino and I were trying to stitch him back together but it was hopeless. He died barely ten minutes after he was brought in. His girlfriend had been working on the other side of the tent with a lesser injured patient. When Ino screamed we were losing it drew her attention. She saw who we were working on and she lost it, his partner had to hold her back while we were working," Sakura's eyes closed new tears worked through. "Shortly after that he passed away, all I could remember were her screams and the way she through herself over his body," she laid her head on his shoulder again and shuddered. "I saw myself then in her role and instead of seeing Sasuke on that cold metal slab, I-I-I saw you. That's when I realized if Sasuke died it would hurt but I know he'd be free his misery and quest for revenge, he'd be at peace. But if you died," she shuddered again, "I know I would have lost the most important person in my life, my lover, my soulmate, my husband, the father of my children, my Hokage."

The whisker marked blonde smiled softly kissing her forehead. "I'm sorry for scaring you, I'll reserve my pranks on Kakashi-sensei, Sai, and Yamato, maybe the village if I'm in a good mood," he chuckled. He heard his wife sigh pulling away to look up into his eyes, it was at these moments he found her at her most breathtaking. Her eyes looking up into his showing such longing, love, with a small hint of mischief twinkling at the edges. It was a look he knew he'd never truly get use to and he was glad of that. But he also knew that her feelings of self-loathing were just underneath. These were the feelings that she felt she didn't deserve him, because of everything she did in the past everything during the academy years and the first few months of being in team 7 before Sasuke left, of all the missed opportunities to feel what real love felt like and failed. Her own personal inner reflection, he sighed mentally. _Don't she know that no matter what I'll always forgive her and I'll always love her_._ Probably thinks that Hinata would be a better option_. Naruto frowned mentally kissing Sakura's forehead thinking about it. _Hinata is nice just too weird for me, I heeded mom's advice on that, don't go for the weird ones go for someone like her._ He chuckled causing Sakura looked at him oddly, "Just remembering some advice my mom once told me."

"She gave you a lot of advice when you were in your mindscape, which bit of advice are you talking about?" she asked.

"If I ever met a girl I should pursue the one that is most like her," he chuckled again. "I guess out of all the things she imprinted on me as a baby that one was the only one that got through."

Sakura smiled softly, "So I'm a lot like your mother, huh?"

"Pretty much I mean the first thing she did when I met her, was pound me into the floor for being an idiot," Naruto laughed. Sakura just shook her head and sighed in contentment as he engaged in another bout of kissing with her. "Your the best thing in my life Sakura-chan, I love you."

Sakura's eyes watered, "I love you too, my Naruto."

Author's Note: this is another one-shot my take on the inner reflections Naruto would have if he found out the truth about everything. Also points out the half-assed confession and whether or not its believe-able. I say if it was a full blown lie like many believe Sakura wouldn't have blushed when she made that confession. To me it's a partial truth, and its just as credible as the confession Hinata made. Sakura is just a deeper character than Hinata, Kishimoto has put more work into her than Hinata. Hinata is the stereotypical shy girl, like Nodoka from Negima, Shinobu from Love Hina, Hotaru and Ami from Sailor Moon. This is just my belief you can agree to disagree with it or not just pointing things out.


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